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PaperclipPerfector  13hr ago (text post)   335 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for November 21, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Should I get Baldur's Gate 3? Considering picking it up... but idk. I loved the other Divinity games.

If you're not sure, you can pirate it first, play it a bit and then decide. But personally, I would just say "yes". Haven't heard a single person I know dislike the game.

It plays and feels like D:OS so if you enjoyed that, pick up BG3. I think that they did a really good job with it, though I do have my gripes (for example there are characters whose dialogue sounds like it was taken from Reddit, which is a horrible writing choice for a medieval fantasy like the Forgotten Realms).

Arguably an accurate choice for a setting designed by Ed Greenwood, though.

How compelling is the story? I tried to pick up D:OS but there's just so much pissing about for stuff that doesn't really feel like it matters. I hoped BG3 would be more emotionally deep and driven.

It is better, with a few segments that are genuinely good, but ultimately its still a Larian game.

Should I get Baldur's Gate 3?

Yes, especially if you liked the Divinity and Baldur's Gate games.

What is it that you dont know? If you liked the divinity games then this is a no-brainer, it's effectively Divinity 3.

Oh I thought it was really different and based on the dnd system?

It doesn't matter much for how the game plays. It's still a larian game with the same kind of gameplay and writing, but better.

It's very similar to DOS 2. But better, IMO. Moving to D&D doesn't make a huge difference.

Definitely try it. I'm only a few hours into act 2 (out of 3) but it seems like one of the best rpgs ever. It's pretty wokeified but you can adjust that with mods.

Court opinion:

  • In year 1985, on a dead-end street that terminates at a beach, two properties are created*, one on the beachfront at the end of the street and another with the first property between it and the beach. The beachfront property is encumbered with a restrictive covenant forbidding any construction or landscaping taller than four feet in the rear 40 percent of the lot, "specifically imposed for the benefit of" the non-beachfront property. In year 2002, the federal and state governments obstruct the ocean view with a tall dune in order to mitigate erosion.

  • In year 2015, Frank buys the non-beachfront property for 5.2 megadollars. In year 2018, John buys the beachfront property for 5.3 megadollars (outbidding Frank, who also wants to buy it). John demolishes the existing beachfront house and builds a new one. But the new house's landscaping includes trees taller than four feet in the restricted area, so Frank sues John to force him to prune the trees down to four feet.

  • In court, John argues that the restrictive covenant is superfluous because the ocean view that it was intended to preserve for the non-beachfront property no longer exists. But the trial judge rejects this argument, and the appeals panel affirms. The restrictive covenant is unambiguous, and it is not unreasonable to interpret it as intended to preserve the non-beachfront property's view, not just of the ocean, but also of "the scenic dunes and beachscape that surrounds it".

*Insert Georgism joke about how land cannot be created. Insert Nederland joke about how land can be created.

Court opinion:

  • A woman reports to the police that a man has trespassed in her house and fallen asleep there. The responding police officers are familiar with the trespasser, and note that his car is parked outside the house, with the key and a bunch of cash plainly visible through the car's windows.

  • The officers arrest the trespasser and bring him to the police station, which is just three blocks away from the house. The officers note that the trespasser appears drunk, but do not think that there is enough evidence to additionally charge him with driving to the house while drunk. The officers remind the trespasser that he's too intoxicated to drive legally, offer to drive him home, warn him that his car is presenting an enticing target to thieves, and suggest that he call someone to drive the car away. The trespasser assures the officers that he will get picked up by someone else, and tells them that he won't bother to call anyone to drive the car away. He is not so intoxicated that he is a danger to himself, so the officers release him from custody (rather than making him sober up in an emergency room for a few hours).

  • At this point, three hours have passed since the initial report. One of the officers drives back to the house to make sure that the trespasser doesn't drive the car away. The officer immediately sees the car being driven away. The officer can't see who the driver is, but suspects that it is the trespasser, and on that suspicion tries to pull the car over. The driver tries to escape at high speed for half a mile, but eventually stops and is revealed to be the trespasser. The officer notes that the trespasser still appears intoxicated (though less than he was three hours prior), and arrests the trespasser for (inter alia) drunk driving.

  • At trial, the trespasser argues that the officer did not have enough suspicion to stop the car. But the trial judge rejects this argument, and the appeals panel affirms. The "reasonable suspicion" necessary for a warrantless motor-vehicle stop is a low bar, and the officer in this case cleared that bar when he observed the car being driven away in conjunction with the trespasser's statement that he wasn't going to call anyone to drive it away.

There was also a case that I posted in the Wednesday Wellness Thread.

Two exceptionally reasonable decisions that give me confidence that the justice system works like it should.

I hope John had to pay the court+Frank a shitload of money for wasting their time and being a shitty neighbor.

It looks like Frank did demand court costs in his complaint. But costs are mentioned in neither the trial judge's opinion nor the appeals panel's opinion, so I assume that these costs (and Frank's entitlement to them) will not be determined until after the appeals process has concluded.

Has anyone played Dispatch? I'm hearing a lot of good buzz about this VN but am currently busy with EU5, it's like I've been working two jobs these two weeks.

I've got a major love for its genres*, so grain of salt, but I like it enough that my biggest complaint's that it's too short. Story's pretty strong if sometimes a little jank, the animation's great, and the voice-acting works a lot better than I feared given how heavily they leaned on youtubers. There's definitely room for improvement -- the central minigame is a little too easily broken, and The Last-Second Redemption feels like it's more earned by a player than by a character -- but it's well worth the entry fee.

* both VNs with some strategy or reaction gameplay dropped in like Uplink, and serious-but-not-grimdark superheroics like the Astro City and Common Grounds comics.

It's great, I can easily recommend it. It's mostly an interactive movie, though. As opposed to an actual video game.

The biggest things that pop in my head about it: the characters are awesome and interesting, the writing is almost all excellent. And the choices matter a bit more than they did in older Telltale games. You can do two playthroughs that feel very different from eachother. Oh, and the voice-acting is genuinely phenomenal.

There are a few graphic scenes (boobs) but there's an option to censor them.

I played Dispatch. It's fun. It's pretty. It's not really a game but a story with aspects that make it more immersive than a normal TV show. I will be happy to buy whatever else AdHoc Studio comes up with.

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